Time counts when a patient is suspected of having a stroke. So UC Health has begun beaming the doctors in to hard to reach places.

Physicians know that clot-busting drugs given within a few hours of the onset can reduce disability and even save lives. But if administered too late, they can do more harm than good.

For patients in the Tri-State’s outlying regions, getting access to a physician who can make the call is not always easy. The area’s stroke experts are concentrated in Cincinnati’s Pill Hill.

The health system is using TeleStroke “robots” to connect specialists such as Dr. Aaron Grossman with smaller hospitals. UC Health’s stroke team can use the system’s two-way webcam to help local doctors assess patients and decide whether to give the drug, called tissue plasminogen activator or tPA.

The doctor can, to an extent, control what the robot on the end does, such as zooming in or pivoting for a better view.

“The system is critical to our collaboration with rural emergency-room physicians,” said Grossman, a member of the UC Health stroke team.

The specialists use two of the robots, made by Goleta, Calif.-based InTouch Health, at University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

UC Health has equipped various hospitals throughout the region with units, as well. They include Dearborn County Hospital, Clinton Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, Adams County Regional Medical Center and a handful of others.

Since the program began a year ago, the stroke team has provided 80 robot exams resulting in 26 patients being treated with tPA.

Total in-person and TeleStroke exams in 2012 were 583, with 270 patients treated with tPA.

Grossman said the system is looking into using the robots for other specialties, such as psychiatry.